• The near-collapse of the bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena has caused some to question the economic competence of Italy’s centre-left Democratic party and threatens to cost the progressive coalition around Pier Luigi Bersani an outright win in the forthcoming general election.
• Last weekend the FT wrote the story of the unhappy Amazon staff in Rugeley, UK. Now Amazon is at the centre of a scandal in Germany, where there are claims that guards with neo-Nazi connections were employed to intimidate foreign workers.
• A trove of al-Qaeda documents found in Timbuktu have shown the kind of theocracy that the group was aiming to put into place: “Al Qaeda and its allies were not only establishing their version of a Taliban state in northern Mali – they were doing so systematically, transforming daily life to conform to their harsh interpretation of Islamic law.”
• Thousands of hungry and unwashed passengers spent five days adrift on a cruise ship. We recommend the New York Times report on how they came to be clamouring for food in the Gulf of Mexico.
• The Economist argues that politicians who want to improve their countries should focus on reforming their tax systems.

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